War of the Tsurekin

Skylar chewed on her lip and looked at everyone playing as memories threatened to fill her head. She fought to keep them locked up in the closet she'd shut them in. She swallowed and fought to keep her emotions and face normal.

"Lets just say that there is a good reason I was living with my Gram." She said taking a deep breath. "You see, my parents..."

"Skylar, you don't have to tell me." He said looking over at her.

"No, but I owe it to you. Maybe if you understand why I'm slow to trust it'll make more sense." She sighed letting the memories out. She blinked them back shaking her head. "My parents were druggies, to put it lightly. When I came into the picture, they didn't do much to take care of me. It wasn't until I was about ten that the system found me and sent me to my Gram's, but by then I'd lived long enough on the streets to know that trusting people didn't make sense. My parents used to leave me outside of their 'fun houses' sense I was to young to go in. They left me sitting ontop of a garbage can outside of them one day. I sat there for three days before a cop found me. They'd slipped out the front door and left me, guess they were tired of taking care of me. I don't know. But that's the long story short." She could smell the garbage like she was still there. Still hear the voices from inside the house. The silence, and then the smell as more people filtered in. Not once had her parents shown up. For a whole week after they'd taken her to her Gram's she'd sit outside waiting for them to show, they never did. She was just a ten year old that wanted her mommy and daddy no matter how much they hurt her or ignored her. They never came, and she gave up.


*OY*

"I'm sorry to hear that, Skylar. It must have been hard for you, having your parents abandon you at such a young age. But I know what it's like to lose loved ones."

Kai turned to look out at the ocean. "From what I was told, I was always a quiet child. I didn't like talking to other kids. My parents were worried about me, so they took me to a psychiatrist when I was eight. But no matter how hard they tried they just couldn't get me to interact with others.

"But when I was ten, Ryukin showed up and saved me from that bear. After I brought him back home and put him in the garden shed I went to tell my parents about him. They didn't believe me, in fact they thought I was talking about an imaginary friend or something." He smiled and shook his head. "Now that I think about it, it's kinda funny. Ever since Ryukin showed up, I started opening up to others. I started making a lot of friends at school. I was just as surprised as my parents were. But whatever had been holding me back was gone, and for the first time in my life I felt like a normal kid.

"But when I was fifteen years old, that all changed. I still remember that night as if it was yesterday. It happened in October during a thunder storm. My parents were visiting with our neighbours at the time, so I was home alone. The storm had started out mild, but it started getting worse and worse. Since my parents didn't know about him, Ryukin had to live in the forest behind our house. I was worried about him so I decided to check up on him, so I took my raincoat and went looking for him.

"But when I found him the storm had become so bad that I couldn't find my way back to the house. So I stayed with Ryukin for a few hours until the storm died down. When I got back home, my parents weren't home. Their car wasn't in the driveway, so I figured they went out for something. I waited all night for them to come home, but they didn't. It was only when the sun started to come up that I heard a car pull into the drive way, but when I went to check it was a police car. The officers had showed up to tell me my parents had died in a car accident. As it turns out, they had left to look for me. Ever since that day I went back to being withdrawn, Ryukin was the only friend I had, and the closest thing I had to family. It wasn't until I met you and Sean that I started to open up again."

"I'm so sorry." Skylar said looking at him. "I'm glad you opened up though." She smiled. "I might've killed Sean before I gave him a real chance."

"Probably not. He grows on people to fast." Kai laughed.

"If you think so, but he bugged me for a little while there. Guess he does grow on you though." She smiled.

"See." He smiled. She laid back on her back floating while she was looking up at the sky.

"I do have a question, though," Kai said. "Why did you go with Elise to buy a new swimsuit. Don't you already have one?"

Skylar sighed. "She pretty much forced me into it. I only did it so she would stop pestering me about it. But I guess it was worth it just to see Shigure's face when she stepped out of the changing room." Skylar could still remember it clearly, she was trying so hard to stay looking tough but it just made things more funny because her face was bright red. In fact, it was probably the first time that girl ever looked cute.

"I'll bet, I wish I could have seen it, too," Kai said, smiling at the thought. "But other than that, I think going to the mall with Elise was a good thing. You do look pretty sexy in that swimsuit."

Skylar's face flared bright red as she moved to hide her body under the water. "Wha- What?" She stared at him. For a moment she thought he was serious, but then his face contorted as he tried to stifle a laugh but failed.

"You should see your face right now," he said, finally laughing out loud.

Skylar frowned hard and splashed him. "That's not funny!" she said.

Kai splashed her back. "Yes it was."

Skylar didn't know if she should be mad or upset. She ducked under the water as he splashed her again. She came back up and splashing him back.

"Your so mean." She said crossing her arms. HE laughed and shook his head.

"I'm mean?" He laughed with a smile. "I think you've got to much salt in your system from the ocean."

"Go drown." She said splashing him again.

They splashed at each other for a while until they got tired and decided to go back onto the sand. The others had stopped playing frisbee and were doing other things. Akira had fallen asleep while sunbathing and was snoring pretty loudly. Sean and Becky were burying her in the sand. Elise was swimming in the water with Mira a little way away from where Kai and Skylar had been. Ceder and Ty were making a sand castle. All the other Tsurekin were either running around, sleeping, or wrestling with each other.

Shigure and Kaeru were sitting by themselves under and umbrella away from everyone else. She seemed to have a thoughtful look on her face as she watched Ceder and Ty.

"I'm starting to get hungry," Kai said. "I'm going to see if there's anything to eat in the house. I'll be back in a few minutes." He ran off toward the house to see if there was anything to eat.

Skylar decided to go sit with Shigure. She still doesn't quite trust the girl but at least Shigure was making an effort to bond with the rest of the group. Her being out here at all was proof of that. She sat down beside her and said, "Hey."

"Hello," Shigure said. She was back to being her usual cold self.

Skylar watched Ty and Ceder as well. "Looks like they're having fun," she said.

"I guess," Shigure answered.

"Why don't you go join them?"

"I'm fine where I am right now."

"You and Ty seem to be getting along pretty well."

"I guess," she said again.

"Do you have any family back in Japan?"

"No," Shigure answered simply.

"Really? No mom? No dad? Sisters? Brothers?"

Shigure flinched ever so slightly when she heard the word brother. But she sobered up just as quickly and said, "None that I want to talk about."

"Family can be brutal." Skylar shrugged. Shigure didn't seem to have the same opinion so Skylar shut up.

"Whats with you and Kai?" Shigure asked.

"Nothing." She replied as she felt her cheeks get hot.

"Uh huh." Shigure replied as she laid back with a smile.

"I'm telling the truth." Skylar said.

"With words, your face is saying otherwise." She replied with a laugh.

Skylar was a little surprised. "I think that's the first time I ever heard you laugh, or even saw you smile for that matter."

Shigure sobered up and sat back up again. "Don't read too much into it."

Skylar nodded. "Fair enough." She got an idea that made her smile. She grabbed Shigure's hand and pulled her to her feet. "Come on." She pulled Shigure over to where the brothers were, despite her protests. "Mind if we join in?" she asked.

"Not at all," Ty said.

Skylar smiled and started helping Ceder as Ty and Shigure worked on the rest. Ceder shoved Skylar's shoulder and she shoved him back with a laugh.

"Behave you two before you knock it over." Ty growled from the other side.

"Sorry." Ceder laughed.


**OY**

They spent most of the day outside on the beach.Skylar, Ceder, Shigure, and Ty finished the sand castle around the same time Sean and Becky finished burying Akira. They were able to watch when Sean took a bucket of water and dumped it right over Akira's head to wake her up. They all laughed when Akira tried to get up but couldn't because she was so heavily buried. When she final pulled herself out of the sand she was pissed. She started chasing after Sean and yelling at him in Japanese. He was lucky he could climb a full grown tree in less than ten seconds, because if Akira caught him she would have killed him.

They stayed on the beach until the sun started to set, and Ivy called them all in for dinner.

Skylar had watched for Kai the whole time but he never came. When they got inside she saw him talking to Ivy.

"Lets eat." IVy smiled as she pointed to the table.

"Sounds good. I'm starved" Ceder grinned.

"Me too." Everyone else coursed.

Kurt came downstairs to join them a few minutes later. They all dug in, except for Akira who was rummaging around the kitchen pantries. "Nande, where do you keep the booze in this house?" she asked.

"Can't you wait until dinner is finished before you start drinking?" Ivy asked.

"But I'm on vacation, I should be allowed to drink whenever I want."

Ivy sighed, shaking her head. "In the cupboard over the fridge."

Akira grabbed a chair and used it to reach the cupboard. "Yosh!" she said once she saw the bottles inside.

Ivy turned back to everyone else. "So, did you all have fun out there?"

They all nodded. "You should have seen what Sean did to Akira out there," Elise said with laughter in her voice. "He buried her whole body while she was asleep and dumped a bucket of water over her head."

Ceder piped in. "I loved the part when she tried to climb up that tree after him and fell on her butt."

"I'm still mad about that, you know," Akira said with a frown as she came back to the table with a bottle in one hand.

"I'd be careful, if she gets drunk she might not think and come at you again." Skylar laughed.

"Naw, she mellows out when she drinks." Ivy said shaking her head. "None of you will get any." She said as Ceder started to try and grab the bottle.

"Ah man, but we're on vacation too." He smiled.

"Your a minor, end of story." Ivy replied.

"Are you going to tell them why you brought them here?" Kurt asked.

"That's right, thanks for reminding me," Ivy said.

"What, you mean this isn't just a vacation?" Skylar asked.

"There's something I need to show you all. Meet me on the beach at ten o'clock tonight. Dress warmly, because it can get cold around here at night."


(You want to do the time jump to ten o'clock?)

(((Sounds good)))

At about nine fifty Skylar got changed into sweats and flip flops. She walked outside with the others pulling her hair up as she went, Tala at her side.

"Alright, we're all here." Kai said when they stopped in front of Ivy and Kurt. Skylar crossed her arms and eyed them watching to make sure nothing was off. She breathed in, they were alone.